20 LISTENER JUNE 8 2019
L
arry Smarr has been called
perhaps the world’s most self-
measured man. Never mind
your average Fitbit – although
he wears one of those as well- Smarr’s digital database of
his own biomarkers runs to
hundreds of figures.
For the professor of computer science
and engineering at the University of Cali-
fornia, San Diego, basics such as heart rate,
blood pressure, steps taken, weight and
hours of sleep were just the beginning.
Since he began collecting his data nearly
20 years ago, the measurements have
become more intense and more invasive,
but “we’re still just scratching the surface
of what measuring your body is going to
be like”.
Data from his blood and stool samples
provided the information that led to a
diagnosis of Crohn’s disease in 2012,
when he was pre-symptomatic. He collects
stool and blood samples every month,
but for two-week stretches also wears a
fine needle embedded in his arm attached
to a microprocessor, which records his
blood-glucose levels every 15 minutes
as he experiments with different eating
and fasting regimes. He discovered not
only that he was pre-diabetic, but also
that time-restricted eating – eating only
within a time frame of eight hours a day- dramatically improved his blood-sugar
control.
“A lot of people don’t think they’re pre-
diabetic because they’re fit,” says Smarr.
Indeed, it’s hard to imagine many are
much fitter at the same age than Smarr,
who has a resting heart rate of 40 beats a
minute – normally seen only in profes-
sional athletes – is a healthy weight (86kg
and 1.86m), exercises regularly and has
a (medication-controlled) blood pres-
sure of 135/70. Although chronologically
he’s 70 years old, biologically, he’s still in
his early sixties. He measures everything
about himself because “you’re hallucinat-
ing if you think you can intuit what the
measurement of a particular biomarker in
your body is by your symptoms or how
you feel”.
Smarr finds his Fitbit useful for moni-
toring the quality of his sleep, but he’s
recently added a newer gadget, an Oura
ring, which records heart-rate variability
during sleep. “It’s helped me realise when
I’m damaging myself by not getting
enough sleep or eating and drinking alco-hol too close to when I go to bed.”
Digesting a big meal can increase heart
rate temporarily. “Your heart rate gradu-
ally decreases overnight, but if it starts
pretty low rather than being high and
coming down, you get a more rest-
ful sleep. You should finish eating andSelf-
measured
man
A US computer scientist who
has been monitoring the state
of his health for nearly two
decades says he’s healthier
now than he’s been in 15 years.
“It’s helped me realise
when I’m damagingmyself by not getting
enough sleep or eating
and drinking alcohol tooclose to when I go to bed.”
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